Mission and Goals
The mission of the Center for Academic Technology (CAT) is to support faculty in the exploration and use of new and emerging technology to enhance teaching and learning and to support the development and assessment of online, blended, and hybrid course design.
CAT was established with the following goals in mind:
- To provide an attractive physical environment for learning and collaboration;
- To provide a dedicated space for faculty use and professional development;
- To equip the facilities with the latest technology to support pedagogical innovation;
- To staff the center with dedicated personnel to assist faculty with instructional design and application integration;
- To maintain the University’s learning portal (Blackboard) as well as additional applications and tools for instruction, Web 2.0, mobile learning, distance and e-education, and assessment.
- To maintain a 24-hour help desk to support students and faculty;
- To empower a faculty committee dedicated to the development and implementation of policies and procedures to support online, blended, and hybrid learning;
- To maintain a collaborative learning community as the liaison with the Teaching and Learning Technology (TLT) Group
The realization of these goals will allow the faculty to leverage their knowledge and creativity without the need of becoming media specialists and will enable them to incorporate cutting edge technology into the educational experience.
The Learning Resources Division (LRD) appointed Dr. Suzan Harkness to lead the CAT and build a faculty and technical support team available to assist faculty with the planning, design, development, and assessment of curricular projects deploying instructional technology, either in the classroom or online.
An appointed faculty committee for online learning (C4OL) acts as the liaison between the CAT and the academic departments to help develop and implement policies, guidelines, and procedures governing online teaching and to collaborate in establishing robust online offerings at the university. This committee advises the center’s professional staff on issues regarding faculty professional development needs and serves as a forum for faculty discussion, debate, and assessment for online course design at the University of the District of Columbia.
The core of the center are e-labs fully equipped with the latest electronic technology and a dedicated faculty available to collaborate with instructional faculty. Our e-labs have varying capacity and computer stations that are connected to the teacher’s station by a local area network (LAN). The teacher station has a document camera that provides digital projection of opaque and transparent objects as well as controls for recording the activities in the room via audio and video formats. Images from a variety of recorded formats can be displayed on a large screen projection system. The teacher station is also equipped with a SMART interactive whiteboard. The CAT has web casting and teleconferencing capability and the availability of on-demand prerecorded materials over the Internet. Our e-labs are also equipped with a wireless web access point for laptops. The center also has a faculty development room with eight computer stations dedicated to the preparation of teaching materials, and testing modules. Specialized software applications are available on these computers for faculty use.
Additional resources within the Learning Resources Division include a 125-seat auditorium equipped with sound reinforcement, web access, large screen projection system, and a portable “wireless access classroom.” Our media services also support instructional requests for laptops, VHS/DVD players, and televisions.
CAT provides training and development opportunities for faculty. It will conduct technology and media workshops for hands-on practice, as well as bring experts to share experiences and best practices for teaching and learning.